Accept The Uninvited
by Zarius
Summary: The Terrahawks recieve information that a mass exodus is underway from Planet Guk, and headed to Mars. Ninestien is tasked with instead directing the fleeing Androids to Earth before Zelda can recruit them
1. Chapter 1

**TERRAHAWKS:**

 **"ACCEPT THE UNINVITED"**

 **WRITTEN BY INTES. STEIN**

* * *

Kate Kestrel took a peek behind the curtain and looked outward to the teeming mass of humanity awaiting her performance.

"I'm quite the hot ticket aren't I?" she remarked to her producer Stu Dapples.

"Go-go-got in-in one, if one were a million, you'd still be the only one to count in the million, so th-that would make the one-one million ve-very much a minority, not a majority, or-or something like that" Stu nervously rambled, trying to contribute an intelligible and profound reply to show how in-sync he was with Kate.

"You sure have a way with numbers Stu" said Kate, pinching Dapple's cheek ever so slightly, before taking a seat, turning around, and steadily placed her fingers on the piano keys.

"Ten seconds to curtain" replied a stage hand.

"Rai-raise the roof Kate" said Dapples.

In the crowd, the remainder of Kate's teammates and friends were seated, themselves full of concern.

"I hope all goes well tonight" said Mary Falconer, co-pilot of the Battlehawk,

"If not, I'll blame it on nerves" said Hawkeye.

"When have you ever known Kate to have nerves?" Mary asked him, slightly cross.

"Flaming Thunderbolts, will you two pipe down? I'm in the middle of an important phone call" replied Tiger Ninestien

"Tiger, don't be rude" lectured Mary.

"Sorry sir" Hawkeye responded.

"Who are you calling at such a crucial moment anyway?" Mary said.

"We've been hearig from intel that there's been a mass exodus from Planet Guk"

"Zelda's domain?"

Ninestien cautioned her to keep her voice down.

Suddenly, the curtain rose, Kate's show was about to begin.

"Tiger, the show's starting, your call will have to wait" Mary responded.

"Not now Mary, I'm about to get intel on where the Guk exodus is heading...there's only two viable options, and like it or not, Earth Defence wants them touching down on our fertile ground. Heaven knows why"

Ninestien felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked to see a tall, bald black bouncer towering over him.

"Excuse me sir, it's advised that all phones be turned off while the concert is in session"

"I'm currently in session, so you'd best back off tiny" Tiger responded.

"Ok, I'm not one to warn anyone twice, come with me sir"

"Do you know who I am?" Tiger spoke

"I know trouble when I see it" the bouncer replied, and picked up Ninestien by the scruff of his neck, dragging him from his chair and pushing his way through the crowd towards the exit. Mary covered her hands in embarrassment.

"Look, there's Kate" Hawkeye said excitedly, holding up a card of well wishes hoping she would see it.

Kate took in a deep breath, briefly closed her eyes, the spotlight dimmed, obliterating the crowd and leaving a single solitary spotlight that illuminated her and her instrument.

Her fingers danced across the piano keys, and from her tender lips slipped out a song.

 _When you call out at the midnight hour_

 _The moonlight bides it's time_

 _Wait until the day in motion_

 _Has no place as yours or mine_

 _This moment belongs to one and all_

 _Never shed it on this date_

 _The creatures of the sky and Earth_

 _Bask in this fine gift from fate_

 _And you forever see reflections_

 _Of the world within your eyes_

 _Giving in to your temptations_

 _Pure tension in disguise_

 _You reach out for my tender kiss_

 _And you hope it hits the spot_

 _But in her mind, love is precious_

 _And forever's what it will cost_

As the piano fell silent, so too did the crowd. Until one solitary clap approving the song caused the whole room to become awash with clapping, commotion and adulation as Kate's audience let it be known to her

"Ha, it's like she's never heard of nerves, I guess you were right Mary" said Hawkeye, but Mary was distant, troubled by Ninestien's phone conference, and what it could mean for the Earth.

"You'd best inform Kate of what Tiger's been up, I'd best tend to him, I hope ''Tiny'' didn't rough him up too much. He does have a bit of a lip on him"

""Yes Ma'am" said Hawkeye, and headed over to the podium to give Kate the 1:0 on the situation.

Mary stepped outside where she saw Ninestein nursing a bloody nose besides his chameleon-like limo Hudson.

"Tiger, you're hurt"

"Just the pride, I'm still capable of leading the charge on this pack" said Ninestien, blowing hard into the tissue and genlty carressing it's bloody contents on Hudson

"Oh that's perfectly proper sir, now I must stay in crimson mode until I have a proper clean-up at Hawknest" Hudson desparingly lamented.

"Tiger, are you certain about the Guk exodus? What if it's a ploy from Zelda?"

"I've tried telling the defense council that, but they see this as the first true test of their open doors policy, they want to show Zelda's people that we somehow aren't the savages she would have us believe we are"

"You said back there only heaven knew why the defense council would want them touching down here, do you still believe in that? That Zelda's people, some of which might be innocents, from the men to women to children, are all to be tarred with the same brush?"

"I guess we'll find out if a leopard's spots all form the same old circles" said Ninestein, refusing to directly answer Mary's challenge.

He opened Hudson's left back door, inviting Mary to step in with him.

"You always instruct us to expect the unexpected, maybe it's now time to accept the uninvited" said Mary.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

* * *

Aboard the orbiting Terrahawk defense and monitoring vessel Spacehawk, Lt. Hiro was in a celebratory mood as he listened in to Kate's performance being transmitted on all galactic frequencies.

His loyal Zeroid, 101, made note of Hiro's beaming pride as he rocked his head back and forth to the electronic piano score.

"You must be very proud of your collberative efforts with Ms. Kestral"

"Much of it came from the imagination of my family 101" said Hiro, "Many poems and songs written by my grand parents greatly influenced this song"

"Don't you think Ms. Kestrel ought to co-credit you for the effort?" asked 101

Hiro was close to blushing, "She would have, but I insisted she not. I would not want too much attention diverting me from my monitoring work, or my much grander passions" he said, tending to his flowers with a small water spray.

"Sir, I'm concerned more about keeping the channels open, this music is bound to get under Zelda's superficial skin"

"On the other hand, it could be a much needed lullaby to the advancing fleet that is fleeing from Guk" assured Hiro.

"Any idea as to what's caused this exodus?" said 101.

"Oppresive regime perhaps" Hiro explained. "Whatever the reason, it will test our capacity of tolerance like never before. In that sense, we could all do with a song that invites all of us into the passage of night towards where the stars shine"

"That sounds like a good song title..sir, would you like to help me work on a song that Ms. Kestral could perhaps sing?" 101 suggested.

"It would be a privelege 101" Hiro replied.

As they set to work on that, Kate and Hiro's previous masterwork could indeed be heard across most of the far spread regions of the galaxy as well as locally.

For on the planet Mars, there was great interest in it from Yung-Star, son of the insidious Guk queen Zelda, who had barely touched his granite crunchies.

This seemed to anger his mother, who stormed in to give him a lecture, her schizophrensic grandosn It-Star in tow.

"What in the name of the galactic pits are you doing stalling your daily breakfast intake like that?" snapped Zelda.

"It's the latest cut from Kate Kestrel mother" Yung-Star revealed.

"That meddling musician always knows how to rock the boat in this house...or is our house a boat considering it's a ship?" joked It-Star.

"There is more pressing matters to attend to than what's hot and what's not at the top of the charts boy" said Zelda.

"What news is there of the Guk exodus Mother?" Yung-Star replied.

"Ah he does follow the daily news grind after all" complimented It-Star.

"The new regime has, as I predicted, taken a deliberate right turn, free elections were frozen and martial law was imposed. The resistance movements were forced off-world and a sizable number of refugees fled with them. I reached out to them in an open transmission and invited them to Mars to recharge and to prepare a counter-offensive to take the planet back from the regime, and to possibly help stack up the numbers game against the accursed clone Ninestien and his Hawkling"

"But those intervening Earthlings have seized the oppertunity to try and convince people of our planet that the Earth is worth looking at with kinder eyes" added It-Star, slowly phasing into his more innocent child-like personality.

"Human compassion is so hard to understand Mother" said Yung-Star, finally taking a bite of his breakfast once Zelda tore off his headphones and stomped on them mercilessly with her feet.

"Human hatred on the other hand, is all too easy a temptation, one that I shall exploit to the best of my ability. I will discredit the Earth in the more innocent eyes of my people to such an extent that the forces of Guk will never consider charity from any such kind of human species again"

"But how will you achieve this mother?" asked Yung-Star.

"By relying on the battle-hardened bias of our greatest nemesis...Tiger Ninestien puts up a strong front, but himself will be our instrument against the immigration"


End file.
